West Brom beat Sunderland to seal fourth straight win and climb to third

West Brom climbed to third in the Premier League table with a 4-2 win over lowly Sunderland in the lunchtime kick-off.

Romelu Lukaku came off the bench to score one and make one as West Brom climbed to third (Picture: PA)

Goals from Zoltan Gera, Shane Long, Romelu Lukaku and Marc-Antoine Fortune sealed the points for the visitors and while strikes from Craig Gardner and Stephane Sessegnon gave Martin O’Neill’s side glimpses of hope, they couldn’t do enough to prevent a fourth straight West Brom victory.

The Baggies move two points above Chelsea, who themselves face Manchester City at Stamford Bridge tomorrow afternoon, while Sunderland could now end the day level on points with the relegation places.

Steve Clarke ’s side opened the scoring after 29 minutes when Gera struck a shot from outside the area which flew into the top right corner, although Sunderland goalkeeper Simon Mignolet will feel he should have done better.

And if Mignolet wasn’t kicking himself for the first goal, he certainly will have been as Long doubled the visitors’ advantage when he robbed the Belgian stopper of the ball and tapped home from close range.

Gardner halved the deficit midway through the second half when he hit a free-kick from outside the area neatly into the top corner.

But the Baggies were not to be deterred and promptly restored their two-goal advantage after Adam Johnson was judged to have fouled Liam Ridgewell in the box and Lukaku converted the resulting spot kick.

Again the Black Cats hit back through Sessegnon with four minutes of normal time remaining, but a stoppage time strike from Fortune gave the visitors a comfortable three points.